


daybreak

by assortedwords



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Bonding, Canon Compliant, Day At The Beach, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28147524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/assortedwords/pseuds/assortedwords
Summary: i got to write room 105 & november for thefour seasons with youzine! (stranger spoilers, references to underage drinking re: omi's wolf days)“You know Ryo,” Omi begins, a little clumsily. “He was pretty much the same back then. What else…”Taichi nods encouragingly. “What about the other members! Like Nachi-san!”A dry smile flickers over Omi’s face. “He was a real brat. He never listened to a damn thing I said. His—” Omi’s voice catches. “His birthday was in November too. Wolf used to celebrate our birthdays together.”
Relationships: Fushimi Omi & Nanao Taichi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38
Collections: Four Seasons with You





	daybreak

**Author's Note:**

> Wolf: Don't talk as if you know anything.  
> Omi: Aah, my bad. But, no matter what, I can't think of you as a stranger.  
> Me and you, it's not just our face that is the same, but the inside too. That’s what I thought, when I got to know you for the first time.  
> However, you were living all by yourself, and I had a best friend and comrades. That was the only difference.  
> \- omi's stranger SSR, chapter 2

It's morning, like the last time they came to the beach. Early enough for even the sun to still be asleep. The rumble of the bike is the only noise around them, and the world abruptly quiets down to nothing when Omi cuts the engine.

Behind him, Taichi hops off the bike. The autumn leaves crunch as he does, patches of red and gold under his feet. He pulls his helmet off, shaking his head a little like a wet dog, and Omi has to stifle a laugh.

“Omi-kun?” Taichi says, looking over.

“Nothing,” Omi says, grinning. He takes off his own helmet, refastening the lock to let it hang off his hand. “Can I know why we’re here this early now?”

Taichi grins. He pulls at Omi’s free hand, bounding towards the sand as he talks. “It’s your birthday tomorrow! I wanted to celebrate, and going to the beach at this time is, like, our thing! You know!”

They’ve only done that once, but if Taichi wants going to the beach at ass o’ clock in the morning to be their “thing”, Omi will gladly go along with it. “Why not on the day itself?” Omi asks. “I’m free then too.”

“Uh!” Taichi says, his smile freezing. “I didn’t know you were!”

Omi’s not fooled. Autumn Troupe celebrates their members’ birthdays every year, and Omi knows he’s not exempt, even if it still feels odd to be the center of attention. He also knows it’s probably supposed to be a surprise, so he just nods gamely. “I see.”

Taichi visibly relaxes. He surveys the beach around them intently, paces around on one spot, and plops down when he’s satisfied. (Omi’s trying really hard not to laugh again. His little roommate is always so cute.) Taichi pats the sand next to him excitedly, just for full effect. “Omi-kun! Sit down!”

Omi obliges. “Did you plan anything for us to do here? Though just this is fine, of course.” 

"Of course I did!" Taichi says cheerfully. He closes his hands into fists and mimes drumming at the air, beaming. “Druuuumroll! Iiiiiit’s~ Omi-kun’s talk corner! You’re always listening to me, so since it’s your birthday, I wanted to give you a chance to talk instead! I’ll hear you out about anything!”

That’s new. Then again, Omi’s no stranger to Taichi’s whims. “I don’t think I have anything interesting to say,” Omi says mildly.

“Anything you say is interesting to me!” Taichi returns. He pauses, his voice turning gentler. “But I thought you’d say that~. If you want a topic, I think your time in Wolf would be really interesting!"

He puffs up his cheeks and blows the air out as he thinks about his next words. “Like! They mean a lot to you, right? And you had lots of happy times together! But you don’t talk about those much, at least not to us in Autumn Troupe. I don’t know if it’s because you don’t want to talk about yourself, or you feel like you'll be a bad influence, but…don't you want to talk about the people you love?” Taichi pauses. “So if you want to talk about those times, I’m all ears!”

Omi spends so much time thinking of Taichi as someone to take care of, he forgets Taichi looks out for him too. Even though Taichi’s proven time and time again that he pays attention even when Omi doesn’t realize. It’s unnerving and comforting to think about, but Omi's glad to have it. “If you want to hear about it, I don’t mind.”

Taichi brightens. An imaginary tail springs up behind him and starts wagging furiously. “I do!! I do want to hear!!!” 

“All right.” Omi mentally rifles through the list of Wolf stories he has. Absolutely none of them include model behaviour.

Well, he can always start from the top. “You know Ryo,” Omi begins, a little clumsily. “He was pretty much the same back then. What else…”

Taichi nods encouragingly. “What about the other members! Like Nachi-san!”

A dry smile flickers over Omi’s face. “He was a real brat. He never listened to a damn thing I said. His—” Omi’s voice catches. “His birthday was in November too. Wolf used to celebrate our birthdays together.”

Taichi links his arm through Omi’s. As comfort, probably. “That sounds nice,” he says simply.

“It was,” Omi says, swallowing. “Nachi knew I didn't like being the center of attention much, so he asked if celebrating our birthdays together would help. And it stuck."

It's a little awkward to recount it here. Omi can act someone else’s script, convey things with his camera, but he’s never been much of a storyteller with his own words. It's hard to say his feelings out loud, anyway. So many of the memories Omi holds dear are little things—the sound of Nachi’s bike next to his own, Ryo showing him how to adjust his bike valves, the members buying each other drinks on their birthdays. It seems silly to try and convey why drinking shitty beer with a team of ragtag teenagers still means so much to him now.

There had never really been a chance where he _could_ convey it _,_ anyway. Taichi was right; Wolf had been a shut away part of his life, written off as a bad influence or a dangerous hobby. Omi had hidden them as his dark past for so long that maybe he'd started to convince himself too.

But the words come out of him easier than he thought they would, flowing freely with Taichi next to him. He tells Taichi about how he and Nachi met Ryo. Meeting Ryuji, Kai, the rest of Wolf. Roaring around West Tokyo on their bikes freer than Omi had ever felt, trying to shout louder than their engines. Finally finding a place in this world he could belong to.

Omi’s throat runs dry after a while, and a flush runs over his face when he realizes. “I talked for so long, I’m sorry—”

“Noo!” Taichi scrambles to squish Omi’s cheeks, effectively cutting him off. "I liked hearing about it!! Omi-kun, you still put other people first all the time, but I want to hear about you once in a while too!!” 

“Ffanth,” Omi tries, except he’s still being squished. Taichi snorts and lets him go.

Well, now Omi can talk properly. “Thanks.” He pauses. “I think…everyone in Autumn Troupe helps me think about myself a little more. You in particular, Taichi."

Taichi giggles happily. “I'm happy to hear that~!" He bumps his shoulder against Omi's. "You help me out all the time, so I want to pay you back! Even if it's only a little bit! I can't really cook or anything, so this is all I can do!"

"I think being able to listen is just as important as cooking," Omi returns. "It’s all ways to show love, isn’t it?"

Taichi scrunches up his face and pouts. "I guess you have a point!"

Omi boops him on the nose. "You've got plenty of skills too, Taichi. You're friendly, and you open up to people fast. I think that's its own kind of amazing."

“Aghhh!" Taichi wails. He mushes his head into Omi's arm like a fluffy little drill. "I wanted to make this an Omi-kun day, but you turned the tables on me!!! I can't win against youuu!!!"

Omi laughs. "Sorry. I'll try to leave the rest of the day for you to do what you wanted."

"You better!!!"

Taichi settles down, his weight pressing on Omi. The two of them lean against each other. The sun had woken while they were talking, dyeing the beach pink in its light. The waves lap against the shore gently, sleepily. They fizzle into foam and come again.

"'Wolf~,'" Taichi prompts next to him. An etude. "'Isn’t the world beautiful?'"

It feels a little like a line that would be in a melodramatic anime, but Taichi’s always had a flair for that sort of thing. (Omi means this in an entirely positive way.) “That’s not fair,” Omi says. Wolf, the first role written for him. Bitter and lonely like Omi had been for so long. “You know Wolf wouldn’t agree.”

“I think he’d change,” Taichi returns. “He meets Zero, they go on all sorts of adventures, and Wolf starts to believe in humanity again. You know, like in manga!”

Omi snorts before he realizes. “You and Nachi would’ve gotten along.”

“I bet!” Taichi agrees. “He seemed like a really cool guy!” 

“I don’t know about cool,” Omi says, his smile turning wry. “But well, you have a point. I guess Wolf could get to the point where he’d say ‘maybe’ to a beautiful world?”

“That’s a start!” Taichi hums happily.

“Yeah,” Omi says. A dawn sky, streaked with cotton candy. People Omi loves, in memory and in life. A world with value. “That’s a start.”

**Author's Note:**

> my first time being in a zine!! otsu to everyone in the project! go check it out, it's free and it slaps!!!! → [itch.io download](https://a3week.itch.io/4swu) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/a3_week/status/1340084289883557888) | [tumblr](https://a3week.tumblr.com/post/637887363008397312/were-proud-to-announce-our-first-zine-four)
> 
> i wanted omi to be doted on + i wanted omi to tell taichi about wolf = i put the two together. i was clearly heavily inspired by stranger but that was mostly unintentional...i just really like the sea...
> 
> my insincere apologies to taichi for making so many dog jokes at him. there are a total of three in the fic but it's fine if you don't catch them. someday i'll sprinkle dog jokes all across a fic and he'll be powerless to stop me
> 
> thank you for reading! see you next fic!


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